BRAIN DEAD EQUIPMENT DROPS TODAY. THE GUIDEBOOK IS THE REAL PRODUCT.

Old LA Zoo. Griffith Park. A set of abandoned concrete structures that have been serving as a bouldering venue since the city cleared out the animals in 1966. Justin Fung spent significant time on those mock rock formations and wrote the result: Oasis Volume 1, the first official climbing guidebook for the Old LA Zoo. Brain Dead met Fung there, made a short film with him, and built an Equipment drop around the collaboration. The collection releases today at 10am PST through wearebraindead.com. ## The Old LA Zoo Is Not a Metaphor The Old LA Zoo in Griffith Park closed in 1966 when the new LA Zoo opened two miles away. The remaining concrete animal enclosures and grottos were not demolished. They became picnic areas, then informal climbing surfaces, and eventually a recognized bouldering spot within the LA climbing community. The mock rock structures — purpose-built concrete forms intended to look natural for zoo visitors in the 1960s — turned out to be structurally useful for movement-based climbing practice. Fung's guidebook, Oasis Volume 1, documents the beta for routes on these structures with contributions from local creative figures including climbers from @citrusvanilla, @emmabasaa, and @transqualia. The guidebook is not available separately from this announcement — it exists as part of the Brain Dead collaboration ecosystem. [Brain Dead and A.P.C. released Interaction 29 in May with Japanese milk glass mugs, denim, and accessories](/quick/brain-dead-apc-interaction-29-japanese-milk-glass-mug-accessories-headwear-2026-j5t9r2wn). The Equipment drop operates from a completely different design premise — not collaboration with a fashion label but with an outdoor practitioner working a specific site. ## Chalk Buckets, Climbing Backpack, Utility Shorts The Brain Dead Equipment collection includes a chalk bucket, a climbing backpack, utility shorts, and summer-ready pieces designed for movement in outdoor environments. Brain Dead's Equipment line has historically occupied the gap between technical outdoor gear and streetwear aesthetics — the pieces are not performance climbing equipment in the hardware sense, but they are informed by climbing culture in terms of proportion, material durability, and carry capacity. The chalk bucket is a chalk bag variant with expanded volume, sized for a group session rather than a single climber. The climbing backpack carries the technical credentials expected for trail and crag approaches. Kyle Ng's design direction has consistently treated function as a starting point, not a constraint. ## 16undergroundmusic Scored It The film that Brain Dead produced with Fung is scored by @16undergroundmusic, shot by @logreboja, with climbing from @citrusvanilla, @emmabasaa, and @transqualia. The combination of a climbing film, an independent composer, and a gear drop is a format that works because it creates a cultural frame around the product before the product needs to explain itself. The Old LA Zoo as a setting does that framing work specifically. A concrete zoo enclosure from 1966 that the climbing community appropriated over 60 years is not a random outdoor location. It is a site with a documented history that Fung's guidebook makes legible. ## 10am PST. The Guidebook Is What Matters. [The Brain Dead x A.P.C. Interaction 29 drop in early May covered the objects side of Brain Dead's creative output](/quick/brain-dead-apc-interaction-29-may-8-2026-collab-f2a8c6e4). This Equipment drop covers the site-specific side. Oasis Volume 1 is the more consequential artifact: a document that formalizes 60 years of informal use, gives the Old LA Zoo's climbing community a written record, and positions Brain Dead as a brand that knows the difference between selling outdoor gear and understanding outdoor culture. The chalk bucket costs what it costs. The guidebook does something a chalk bucket cannot do. ## Kyle Ng Has Done This Before Brain Dead's Equipment releases are consistently framed around specific practitioners rather than general outdoor aesthetics. The brand does not sell adventure as an abstraction. It sells gear that specific people with specific practices use in specific locations. That specificity is the argument. Fung knew the Old LA Zoo well enough to write its first guidebook. Brain Dead knew Fung well enough to build a collection around that knowledge. The result is a gear drop with primary source documentation. That combination is harder to produce than a chalk bucket, and that is exactly why it works.